Distroscale

In it, Fraser, who worked for a series of publications including the Montreal Gazette, before being named Canada’s Commissioner of Official Languages in 2006, recalled covering Legault’s maiden speech as a politician in 1998.

Fraser said Legault, a Parti Québécois candidate at the time, “told his riding association members that he had been raised in Montreal’s West Island among the English, ‘and I hate them as much as you do.’”

Contacted by the Gazette on Tuesday, Guillaume Simard-Leduc, Legault’s press attaché, said: “Mr. Legault denies it vigorously. Do you really think that if he had said that it would not have come out before? This is his third election campaign.”

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Reached a few hours later, Fraser said he was covering the 1998 election campaign for the Globe and Mail when he heard Legault utter the phrase.

Legault was a star PQ candidate in a strongly sovereignist riding north of Montreal at the time.

“I’m standing by it,” Fraser said. “That’s my recollection of what he said. It’s not the kind of thing that one forgets.”

Fraser said it was Legault’s “first political speech ever,” recalling the candidate was on stage with then-premier Lucien Bouchard.

Fraser added: “I don’t want to get into a he-said/he-said debate with him. It’s 20 years ago. I have a pretty vivid recollection, but I don’t have written confirmation of it. And he has moved on.

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“I can understand that running as a businessman in a rural riding that was heavily indépendantiste that he felt he had to demonstrate his bonafides, but I have a very clear memory of his saying that.”

Fraser said he did not report on the quote at the time. “It was after deadline (and Legault) was a candidate who nobody outside Quebec had heard of. In retrospect, I should have figured a way of coming back to it but I didn’t.

Happy hour

Michelle Blanc will leave her keyboard and get behind a bar in an unusual campaign event Wednesday.

The controversial Parti Québécois candidate, whose social-media posts about Hasidic Jews, Hitler and Africans have sparked outrage, is one of four candidates in Mercier riding who will be “barmaids” for a 5 à 7 in Mile End.

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Organizers are inviting voters to “come hear their proposals as you order something to drink.” The event will take place at Aire Commune, an open-air “co-work and networking space” at 5705 de Gaspé Ave.

Fact-checking

Monday saw the first-ever televised debate in English in a Quebec election. But it was also a first because reporters from six competing English-language media outlets banded together to fact-check the leaders.

Sixteen claims were analyzed; most were true, but in many cases context and nuances were missing. The findings were published at montrealgazette.com and the websites of CBC, City, CJAD, CTV and Global.